With a population of more than 1.2 billion, India is the world’s largest democracy. Over the past decade, the country’s integration into the global economy has been accompanied by economic growth. India has now emerged as a global player.
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Thank you Joe Marushack for that introduction, and a special thank you to Alex Feldman for inviting me to address such an amazing gathering.It is a great pleasure to be here today. I want to congratulate... Show More + you and thank you for the work you have been doing over the last three decades.As you all know, I am a child of Southeast Asia. When I was born the region was extremely poor and at the center of major geopolitical tensions.Today, my home region is one of the most dynamic in the world. It is located in a neighborhood that will likely shape this century like no other.If measured in comparable prices, China will soon overtake the U.S. as the largest economy. And by 2050 it will constitute a quarter of the world economy. India will compete with the U.S. for second place, and Indonesia – my country - will be about to overtake Japan. This success inspires others.I just visited Tanzania and Ethiopia, both countries with high poverty and high growth rates in the last decade. Both are look Show Less -

Bank Group ContributionMore than $1.45 billion in competitiveness projects have been sourced from the competitiveness programs through 27 projects under active implementation, almost entirely sourced from... Show More + IDA/IBRD funds. An additional 19 projects worth $1.566 billion are in the design phase. Together these 40 projects are spread worldwide: 53 percent are located in Africa, 5 percent in East Asia and the Pacific, 8 percent in Europe and Central Asia, 15 percent in Latin America or the Caribbean, 8 percent in the Middle East and North Africa, and 13 percent in South Asia. The Competitive Industries practice is also leading 56 analytical and advisory activities spread through various countries and regions: 66 percent are in Africa, 2 percent in East Asia and the Pacific, 5 percent in Europe and Central Asia, 7 percent in Latin America or the Caribbean, 11 percent in the Middle East and North Africa, 7 percent in South Asia, and 2 percent in global initiatives. The CI practice leverag Show Less -

ResultsWith continuing support from the World Bank Group, the Alliance for Financial Inclusion, and others, 38 countries have now made headline commitments to financial inclusion targets and action plans,... Show More + with countries such as South Africa, India, the UK, and Brazil leading the way in prioritizing financial inclusion. The World Bank is committed to supporting low- and middle income countries in designing reforms and other initiatives to meet those commitments and goals, including through a planned new Financial Inclusion Support Framework. To provide the necessary financial infrastructure that underpins financial inclusion, the World Bank has led comprehensive reforms of national payments system in over 100 countries. These reforms have included pillars such as Legal Framework, Large Value Payments, Retail Payment Systems, Government Payments, Interbank Money Markets, Securities Settlement Systems, International Remittances, Oversight Framework, and Cooperative Frameworks. The Wo Show Less -

Secondly, the study reveals considerable variation in the regional approach to low-carbon and clean energy investments, reflecting, one would presume, the techno-economic needs, realities and priorities... Show More + of each country. For example, in predominantly rural countries of Nepal and Bangladesh, the lack of grid connectivity has prompted investors to focus successfully on off-grid renewables rather than grid-connected preferential tariffs or an electricity grid code. In India, the size and diversity of the population provides opportunities to develop different renewable energy sources, while smaller countries may need to emphasize sources that are more easily tapped, such as small hydro (Nepal) or solar PV (Maldives). India also provides regulatory autonomy for different states, which can then compete to attract investors, which is not the case for most other countries.When key investors were surveyed on the relative merits of various policies, regulations, and incentives, some startling res Show Less -

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities have been playing an essential role in addressing the development needs of nations and in promoting social inclusion, particularly in developing economies.... Show More + In 2009-2010, private companies in India spent $7.5 billion for CSR activities while public-sector enterprises spent an additional $700 million.To channel CSR efforts toward attaining the Millennium Development Goals in a socially responsible manner, the World Bank is assisting India’s Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) in structuring its CSR work. It is doing so through the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA), a think tank affiliated with the ministry. The Bank has also been working closely with the IICA in structuring the National Foundation for CSR, the model body for CSR work in India. As part of these efforts, the World Bank is providing the ministry with access to international best practices, including institutional frameworks with transparent guidelines and effective Show Less -

MR. MILLS: Well, thank you very much for joining us for this closing press conference. Our participants will each make an opening statement and then we'll take... Show More + your questions. If I can ask everyone to please turn off your mobile devices or put them to vibrate, we would appreciate it. Chairman Belka. MR. BELKA: Thank you. As we are late, I am not going to be very descriptive about the meeting of the Development Committee. You know the agenda. The discussion was very rich, centering around the social safety nets, the private sector involvement in growth initiatives, as well we discussed modernization of the World Bank. However, one thing that is obvious, it took so long because all the delegates took the opportunity of this Development Committee meeting to express gratitude and adm Show Less -

MR. MILLS: Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for our World Bank Group press conference for the 2012 Spring Meetings. Joining me this morning is the President of the World Bank... Show More + Group, Robert Zoellick, who will have an opening statement and then take some of your questions. If I could please ask everyone when they ask a question to identify themselves and your organization; and once again, I am sure you have been asked, but if we could have our mobile devices switched off or to "vibrate." So, President Zoellick. MR. ZOELLICK: Thank you, Rich. Welcome, and thanks to all of you for coming. This marks my last Spring Meetings as the President of the World Bank Group, so I would like to begin with a few words of thanks to the Ministers who have supported us and worked with us; to our Executive Board, who have labored hard to help our Management team to modernize the important multilateral institution; to the excellent Senior Manageme Show Less -

Washington, April 16, 2012 — World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick today congratulated Dr. Jim Yong Kim for being chosen to become the 12th president of the development institution and offered... Show More + his support in ensuring a successful handover for July 1. “I am pleased to work with Jim Yong Kim during the transition. He is an impressive and accomplished individual. Jim has seen poverty and vulnerability first-hand, through his impressive work in developing countries. His innovations in health-care have helped to save numerous lives. As President at Dartmouth College, Jim has had to take tough managerial and financial decisions while running a large, multidisciplinary organization. His rigorous, science-based drive for results will be invaluable for the World Bank Group as it modernizes to better serve client countries in overcoming poverty.” Show Less -

WASHINGTON, April 16, 2012 - Dr. Jim Yong Kim today released a statement in response to his selection by the World Bank's Executive Directors as 12th President of the World Bank: “I am honored to... Show More + accept the Executive Directors’ decision to select me as the next President of the World Bank Group. I am delighted to succeed Robert Zoellick, who has served with excellence and distinction during the last five years, and I am grateful to the Bank’s member countries for the broad support I have received. I have spoken with Minister Okonjo-Iweala and Professor Ocampo. They have both made important contributions to economic development, and I look forward to drawing on their expertise in the years to come. It is befitting that I conclude my global listening tour in Peru. It was here in the shantytowns of Lima that I learned how injustice and indignity may conspire to destroy the lives and hopes of the poor. It was here that I saw how communities struggle to prosper bec Show Less -

WASHINGTON, April 16, 2012 - The Executive Directors met today to select a new President of the World Bank Group. The Board expressed its deep gratitude for Mr. Robert B. Zoellick’s outstanding leadership... Show More + and his dedication to reducing poverty in its member countries, the core mandate of the World Bank Group. The Executive Directors followed the new selection process agreed in 2011 which, for the first time in the Bank’s history, yielded multiple nominees. This process included an open nomination where any national of the Bank’s membership could be proposed by any Executive Director or Governor, publication of the names of the candidates, interviews of the candidates by the Executive Directors, and final selection of the President. The Executive Directors selected Dr. Jim Yong Kim as President for a five-year term beginning on July 1, 2012. The President is Chair of the Boards of Directors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the Internation Show Less -

Policy makers under pressure can get preoccupied with the fixation of the moment. For the eurozone, that idée fixe has been “the firewall”. How big is big enough? Who contributes and how?Now that the eurozone... Show More + finance ministers have exhausted themselves with a multilayered package of hundreds of billions of euros, the debate will go global at this week’s spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The next preoccupation will be how many more hundreds of billions of euros should be pledged to the IMF. It will be Firewall II: the Sequel.I beg to differ. Not with firewalls exactly, but with the preoccupation.The survival of the eurozone now depends on Italy and Spain. They are the countries that are too big to fail – or to rescue. Extraordinary action by the European Central Bank has lowered the interest rates that Italy and Spain pay on their debt, but not solved their problems.In one sense, the much-badgered Germans are right. The fates of Italy and Spain depen Show Less -

Launched at the height of the global financial crisis, the Joint IFI Action Plan and the European Banking Coordination ‘Vienna’ Initiative (EBCI) provided a significant financial contribution to rescue... Show More + packages in the Emerging Europe region, and a critical coordination mechanism for national reform programs and venue for policy dialogue among key stakeholders in the region. The unprecedented level of cooperation was a key contribution to restoring market confidence in Emerging European banking systems. It illustrated the important counter-cyclical role played by the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) during the financial crisis.Joint IFI Action PlanThe Joint IFI Action Plan, announced in February 2009 at the height of the global financial crisis, was sponsored by the World Bank Group – the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), International Finance Corporation (IFC), and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA); the European Bank Show Less -

WASHINGTON, September 21, 2011 – A new World Bank report, Middle East and North Africa Economic Developments and Prospects: Investing for Growth and Jobs highlights the important links between good governance... Show More + on a level legal and regulatory playing field, and the ability of investment to stimulate growth. “Indeed, if we look at examples from other countries undergoing transition, investment surged in many economies that made early moves to improve governance,” says Caroline Freund, Chief Economist for the Middle East and North Africa region at the World Bank. “Overall, while improving government institutions is necessary for voice and accountability, it is also necessary for growth and efficient use of resources.”To revive investment above and beyond pre-Arab-Spring levels, a move to transparency and accountability is urgent, she argues. The report notes that investment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has been strong over the last two decades in comparison w Show Less -

South Asia has seen an accelerated job growth and a substantial decrease in poverty over the past three decades, second only to East Asia. The region will be the largest contributor to the global workforce... Show More + over the next two decades. More and better jobs are needed to sustain growth and reduce poverty.According to the new flagship report, More and Better Jobs in South Asia, the region—defined by the World Bank as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka,—will need to add between 1 and 1.2 million additional jobs every month for the next twenty years, equivalent to about 40% of the increase in the global labor force. Reforms will have to be accelerated if the region is going to meet the challenge of providing better jobs for them.Human CapitalSouth Asia has a young population and the second lowest female participation rate in the labor force. The demographic transition will result in more than 350 million people to enter the working age population o Show Less -

March 2011: While South Asia navigated the financial crisis better than most regions, the region suffered the worst in terms of trade deterioration during previous food and fuel crises. With global food... Show More + and fuel prices rising again, South Asia will be affected disproportionally. Regional inflation is already high and countries have limited fiscal space to maneuver.About 75% of South Asia’s poor live in rural areas and agriculture sector employs about 60% of the labor force. The region has made enormous strides during and after green revolution in improving agricultural productivity. The revolution allowed the region to lift millions of people out of poverty. Agricultural growth during this period reduced poverty by raising farm incomes, increasing the demand for rural labor, and reducing food prices. In recent years, however, agricultural growth in South Asia has been less than 3%, far below the growth rates of other economic sectors.The continuing increase in world food prices and the Show Less -

Sharm el-Sheikh, January 18, 2011 – To strengthen and enhance collaboration in the areas of economic and social development in the Arab World, the League of Arab States (LAS) and the World Bank Group today... Show More + signed a memorandum of understanding at the Second Arab Economic, Social and Development Summit being held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.Amr Mousa, Secretary General of the League of Arab States said he welcomes the memorandum of understanding as it is related to the objectives that the League of Arab States is trying to achieve, namely. promoting economic and social development in the region and overcoming the obstacles facing economic integration among the countries of the region.Speaking at the signing ceremony, Mahmoud Mohieldin, Managing Director of the World Bank said that the institution will continue to exert every effort to assure its responsiveness to country’s development needs as well as address priorities specified by Arab countries that strengthen economic integration.He ad Show Less -

CHENNAI, December 23, 2010: The Government of India and the World Bank today signed a Credit Agreement of $154 million (approximately Rs 719 cr) for additional financing of the Tamil Nadu Empowerment and... Show More + Poverty Reduction Project.The Agreement was signed by the representatives from the Government of India, the Government of Tamil Nadu, and the World Bank. The signatories to the Agreement were Venu Rajamony, Joint Secretary, on behalf of the Government of India; K. Allaudin, Principal Secretary, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department, Government of Tamil Nadu; Dheeraj Kumar, Project Director, Government of Tamil Nadu; and Roberto Zagha, Country Director, World Bank, India.The objective of the Tamil Nadu Empowerment and Poverty Reduction Project – called “Vazhndhu Kaattuvom” locally, meaning “Let’s show how to live” – is to create economic opportunities and build social capital in the poorest communities. This puts poor people at the center of the planning and implementation of t Show Less -

ACCESS TO FINANCEHigh economic growth coupled with rapid urbanization and a rising middle class have created considerable demand for housing and housing finance in South Asia, according to a World Bank... Show More + report entitled, “Expanding Housing Finance to the Underserved South Asia.”South Asia’s housing and housing finance markets have grown at an impressive 30% in the past decade, but are limited to upper-income groups. Around 30 million middle-and lower-class households in South Asia —which accounts for 11% of the region’s population— have the willingness to pay, but unable to have access to mortgages.In India alone, estimates of the housing shortage range from 20 million to 70 million yet as much as half of this excess demand can be profitably serviced by the housing and housing finance markets.DEMAND FROM LOWER-MIDDLE-CLASSThe report examines housing shortages in South Asia, as well as outlines shortcomings of the market for home financing. To enable a rapid housing and housing finance ma Show Less -

Washington, D.C., November 4, 2010—In the past year, 11 of 18 economies in the Middle East and North Africa adopted a total of 22 business regulation reforms to create opportunity for domestic entrepreneurs,... Show More + according to Doing Business 2011: Making a Difference for Entrepreneurs, the eighth in a series of annual reports published by IFC and the World Bank.Trade facilitation was high on the priority list. Six economies in the region modernized customs procedures and port infrastructure—Bahrain, the Arab Republic of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and West Bank and Gaza. Also popular was improving credit information systems, which occurred in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic, and the United Arab Emirates.In the past five years, about 85 percent of the world's economies made it easier for local entrepreneurs to operate, through 1,511 improvements to business regulation. Doing Business 2011 pioneers a new measure showing how mu Show Less -

South Asia: Smallest Decline in Growth (Enlarge)South Asia's rebound since March 2009 has been strong. South Asia is poised to grow by about 7% in 2010 and nearly 8% in 2011, thanks to the strong recovery... Show More + in India, good performance in Bangladesh, post-conflict bounce in Sri Lanka, recovery in Pakistan, and turnarounds in other countries, including Afghanistan, Bhutan, and Maldives.The region's prospective growth is close to pre-crisis peak levels and faster than the high rates of the early part of the decade (6.5% annually from 2000 to 2007). "The recovery is being led by rising domestic confidence and is balanced in terms of domestic versus external demand, consumption versus investment, and private demand versus reliance on stimulus," said Dasgupta.Intervention at right timeStrong government fiscal and monetary stimulus packages and, in some cases, external assistance are helping stimulate recovery. Improved optimism is helping the recovery in private spending in India, Ban Show Less -